Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Smart Contract-Based E-Voting System Using Homomorphic Encryption and Zero-Knowledge Proof

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Applied Cryptography and Network Security Workshops (ACNS 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13907))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

As an indispensable part of establishing modern representative democratic organizations, election is based on a voting process on site or remotely. With the rapid development of information technology, the application of electronic voting systems in practice is significantly increasing in recent years. Consequently, whether an electronic voting system is secure and reliable enough is the most critical factor of the systems. Whereas, most of the existing proposals neglect to confirm the trustworthiness of the administrator, which may impact the security and availability of the system. For this purpose, we propose an up-to-date electronic voting system based on smart contract using additively homomorphic encryption and non-interactive zero-knowledge proof. In our work, we utilize a concise zero-knowledge proof algorithm and an inbound oracle in combination to allow voters to verify the fidelity of the administrator. We prove the feasibility, efficiency, and scalability of our system can satisfy a majority of application scenarios including large-scale voting. In particular, we evaluate the time performance and cost performance and demonstrate its merits including the low cost in many functions and linear performance when generating zero-knowledge proof.

This research was supported in part by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) No. 19H01103, and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory) No. 22K19776.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Acar, A., Aksu, H., Uluagac, A.S., Conti, M.: A survey on homomorphic encryption schemes: theory and implementation. ACM Comput. Surv. 51(4), 1–35 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3214303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Adida, B., De Marneffe, O., Pereira, O., Quisquater, J.J., et al.: Electing a university president using open-audit voting: analysis of real-world use of Helios. EVT/WOTE 9(10) (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Al-madani, A.M., Gaikwad, A.T., Mahale, V., Ahmed, Z.A.: Decentralized E-voting system based on smart contract by using blockchain technology. In: 2020 International Conference on Smart Innovations in Design, Environment, Management, Planning and Computing (ICSIDEMPC), pp. 176–180 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSIDEMPC49020.2020.9299581

  4. Ali, S.T., Murray, J.: An overview of end-to-end verifiable voting systems. In: Real-World Electronic Voting, pp. 189–234 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., Müller, I.: An analysis of the cloud computing security problem (2016). https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.1609.01107, https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.01107

  6. Anane, R., Freeland, R., Theodoropoulos, G.: e-voting requirements and implementation. In: The 9th IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology and The 4th IEEE International Conference on Enterprise Computing, E-Commerce and E-Services (CEC-EEE 2007), pp. 382–392 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC-EEE.2007.42

  7. Au, M.H., Liu, J.K., Yuen, T.H., Wong, D.S.: ID-based ring signature scheme secure in the standard model. In: Yoshiura, H., Sakurai, K., Rannenberg, K., Murayama, Y., Kawamura, S. (eds.) IWSEC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4266, pp. 1–16. Springer, Heidelberg (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/11908739_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Bokslag, W., de Vries, M.: Evaluating e-voting: theory and practice. CoRR abs/1602.02509 (2016). https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.02509

  9. Fujioka, A., Okamoto, T., Ohta, K.: A practical secret voting scheme for large scale elections. In: Seberry, J., Zheng, Y. (eds.) AUSCRYPT 1992. LNCS, vol. 718, pp. 244–251. Springer, Heidelberg (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57220-1_66

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Hardy, S., et al.: Private federated learning on vertically partitioned data via entity resolution and additively homomorphic encryption. CoRR abs/1711.10677 (2017). https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.10677

  11. Hjálmarsson, F.ß., Hreióarsson, G.K., Hamdaqa, M., Hjálmtýsson, G.: Blockchain-based e-voting system. In: 2018 IEEE 11th International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD), pp. 983–986 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/CLOUD.2018.00151

  12. Keshk, A.E., Abdul-Kader, H.M.: Development of remotely secure E-voting system. In: 2007 ITI 5th International Conference on Information and Communications Technology, pp. 235–243 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1109/ITICT.2007.4475655

  13. Kiktenko, E.O., et al.: Quantum-secured blockchain. Quantum Sci. Technol. 3(3), 035004 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/aabc6b, https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/aabc6b

  14. Liu, J.K., Wei, V.K., Wong, D.S.: Linkable spontaneous anonymous group signature for ad hoc groups. In: Wang, H., Pieprzyk, J., Varadharajan, V. (eds.) ACISP 2004. LNCS, vol. 3108, pp. 325–335. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27800-9_28

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Liu, J.K., Wong, D.S.: Linkable ring signatures: security models and new schemes. In: Gervasi, O., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2005. LNCS, vol. 3481, pp. 614–623. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/11424826_65

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Liu, Y., Wang, Q.: An E-voting protocol based on blockchain. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2017/1043 (2017). https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/1043

  17. Lueks, W., Kulynych, B., Fasquelle, J., Bail-Collet, S.L., Troncoso, C.: zksk: a library for composable zero-knowledge proofs. In: Proceedings of the 18th ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES@CCS), pp. 50–54 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Lyu, J., Jiang, Z.L., Wang, X., Nong, Z., Au, M.H., Fang, J.: A secure decentralized trustless E-voting system based on smart contract. In: 2019 18th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications/13th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering (TrustCom/BigDataSE), pp. 570–577 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/TrustCom/BigDataSE.2019.00082

  19. Pahlajani, S., Kshirsagar, A., Pachghare, V.: Survey on private blockchain consensus algorithms. In: 2019 1st International Conference on Innovations in Information and Communication Technology (ICIICT), pp. 1–6 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIICT1.2019.8741353

  20. Paillier, P.: Public-key cryptosystems based on composite degree residuosity classes. In: Stern, J. (ed.) EUROCRYPT 1999. LNCS, vol. 1592, pp. 223–238. Springer, Heidelberg (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48910-x_16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Provable: Provable documentation. https://docs.provable.xyz/

  22. Ryan, P.Y.A., Bismark, D., Heather, J., Schneider, S., Xia, Z.: Prêt á voter: a voter-verifiable voting system. IEEE Trans. Inf. Forensics Secur. 4(4), 662–673 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2009.2033233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Seijas, P.L., Thompson, S., McAdams, D.: Scripting smart contracts for distributed ledger technology. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2016/1156 (2016). https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1156

  24. Sun, X., Wang, Q., Kulicki, P., Sopek, M.: A simple voting protocol on quantum blockchain. Int. J. Theor. Phys. 58(1), 275–281 (2019)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Sun, X., Wang, Q., Kulicki, P., Zhao, X.: Quantum-enhanced logic-based blockchain I: quantum honest-success byzantine agreement and qulogicoin (2018). https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.1805.06768, https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.06768

  26. Swan, M.: Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy. O’Reilly Media, Inc. (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Szabo, N.: Formalizing and securing relationships on public networks. First Monday (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Taa̧, R., Tanrłöver, Ö.Ö: A systematic review of challenges and opportunities of blockchain for E-voting. Symmetry 12(8) (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12081328, https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/8/1328

  29. Tebaa, M., Hajji, S.E., Ghazi, A.E.: Homomorphic encryption method applied to cloud computing. In: 2012 National Days of Network Security and Systems, pp. 86–89 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1109/JNS2.2012.6249248

  30. Vivek, S., Yashank, R., Prashanth, Y., Yashas, N., Namratha, M.: E-voting systems using blockchain: an exploratory literature survey. In: 2020 Second International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA), pp. 890–895 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIRCA48905.2020.9183185

  31. Yu, B., Liu, J.K., Sakzad, A., Nepal, S., Steinfeld, R., Rimba, P., Au, M.H.: Platform-independent secure blockchain-based voting system. In: Chen, L., Manulis, M., Schneider, S. (eds.) ISC 2018. LNCS, vol. 11060, pp. 369–386. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99136-8_20

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. Zhang, S., Wang, L., Xiong, H.: Chaintegrity: blockchain-enabled large-scale E-voting system with robustness and universal verifiability. Int. J. Inf. Secur. 19(3), 323–341 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Zhang, W., et al.: A privacy-preserving voting protocol on blockchain. In: 2018 IEEE 11th International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD), pp. 401–408 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/CLOUD.2018.00057

  34. Zou, W., et al.: Smart contract development: challenges and opportunities. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 47(10), 2084–2106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2019.2942301

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Nara, 6300192, Japan

    Yuxiao Wu & Shoji Kasahara

Authors
  1. Yuxiao Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shoji Kasahara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shoji Kasahara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, Singapore

    Jianying Zhou

  2. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Lejla Batina

  3. Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China

    Zengpeng Li

  4. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Jingqiang Lin

  5. University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Eleonora Losiouk

  6. Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Suryadipta Majumdar

  7. Illinois at Singapore Pte Ltd., Singapore, Singapore

    Daisuke Mashima

  8. Technical University Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Weizhi Meng

  9. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Stjepan Picek

  10. Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman

  11. Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China

    Jun Shao

  12. SECOM Co., Ltd., University of Tsukuba, Tokyo / Ibaraki, Japan

    Masaki Shimaoka

  13. Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK

    Ezekiel Soremekun

  14. University of Aizu, Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan

    Chunhua Su

  15. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Malaysia

    Je Sen Teh

  16. University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Aleksei Udovenko

  17. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Cong Wang

  18. Griffith University, Southport, QLD, Australia

    Leo Zhang

  19. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Yury Zhauniarovich

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Wu, Y., Kasahara, S. (2023). Smart Contract-Based E-Voting System Using Homomorphic Encryption and Zero-Knowledge Proof. In: Zhou, J., et al. Applied Cryptography and Network Security Workshops. ACNS 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13907. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41181-6_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41181-6_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-41180-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-41181-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics